


Formational Indecencies

by meanderingsoul



Series: Prydonian Misadventures [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, Invasion of Privacy, Pre-Slash, Student Shenanigans, Telepathic Medical Malpractice, new pet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 21:44:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3265445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meanderingsoul/pseuds/meanderingsoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They haven't had another incident with Ushas, but she was still becoming a point of concern.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Formational Indecencies

It was nearly dawn before they reached the portal they’d left behind up to their window. In mutual silence they skipped their first class of the day. It was an etiquette introductory level class, and while Koschei didn’t need the help Theta was so hopeless it was difficult to watch. Time Lords were not to wave and smile in greeting. They were not to hop when impatient or refuse to wear shoes or doze off on Koschei’s shoulder in the back of the class. Most of their year-mates disdained Theta for his conduct, even unknowing of his heritage. That could become difficult to handle when they inevitably found out how talented Theta really was let alone his non-loom origins, but Koschei could not make Theta care. 

The sky still held its tint of darkness, but was giving way to the bright yellow and red flares of dawn as Koschei sat on their workbench with damp hair from the steam chamber and a mug of tea. Flurry birds were beginning to awaken outside the dome, leaping up in great clouds from the Kaden trees in Low Town to spin around on themselves, their bright bellies muted into a mass of black silhouettes. He wonders what the air feels like on their wings, on the skin beneath… 

Theta was flopped on his back, the kitten asleep in the shallow bowl of his stomach, unconsciously riding it up and down with every breath. A thorough wash (and several stinging scratches) had revealed its color to be a tabbied black-on-brown with a white tip on its tail. Theta gently flicked a finger across its tiny ears and smiled. 

“What are we going to call it?”

Koschei glanced up from his drink, surprised out of his musings. “Call what?” 

“The kitten. It needs a name.” 

“ ‘It’ is a she, remember?” He turned his face back down to his drink. The cup was empty now. It wasn’t a promising distraction. Memories of being trapped in the maze and their odd encounter afterwards were still making his skin crawl, but Theta seemed unaffected. Theta never has the sense to be afraid of the things he ought to be. Koschei still wouldn’t wish him to change. 

Theta laughs softly. “ ‘She’s’ have names too. Don’t you let the Basic History of Rassilon turn your head Koschei.”

Ah, that class had been a disgrace in Basics. Rassilon’s sexism had been legendary. They didn’t mention that in the class, or the reasons for the large gaps between the events they did mention which contained events that were obviously not to be mentioned. Koschei and Theta were quite interested in those gaps. The request Theta had send to the University for the real, complete biography of Rassilon had never been responded to. 

“As if.” Koschei knelt on the floor by the bed, eyes even with the kitten. “We can’t give it a real name. Those have power, and a nickname has to be _earned_.” 

Theta rolled his eyes at the old barb. “Really now? It’s been years Koschei. I bet everyone’s completely forgotten why I’m called that.”

“We’re Time Lords, eventually. We don’t forget things. I doubt everyone is going to manage to forget you made a thirty seven on every examination for two full years before the teachers finally told you to stop Theta Sigma.”

“Yeah… Well, we can’t name her ‘Sleepy’, so we’ll have to wait for her to do something. What can a kitten possibly need to do to earn a name?”

“Not much. How long do you think it will be?”

“Oh, I doubt it will be very long.”

*

It wasn’t. 

They’d left the kitten in a quickly assembled container with air gaps and water when they finally went to class in case of messes. Neither of them had the first idea how to house-train an animal, but other people had managed it so so could they. She had somehow climbed out and made her way through their whole room, destruction in her wake.

Everything on their work bench was out of order now, all the carefully laid out components for Theta’s next project on the floor, all of Koschei’s programming chips tangled together. Their clothes had been yanked out of the pile on the extra bed and shredded. The water was even running in the washbasin. 

“Maybe it’s drowned itself,” Koschei mused into the shocked silence. 

Theta wandered into the bathroom and turned off the water. He walked back out a moment later and began picking up the pieces of his project from the stone floor. 

Koschei was still standing in the doorway, Tablet and stylus under one arm. “Guess not.” 

He dropped his things inside their door and tapped it closed. The bed they slept in seemed to be the only thing not destroyed so he walked towards it. 

“I found her.”

Theta looked up from his task at Koschei’s voice.

On Theta’s pillow the kitten was curled up asleep, white tail tip in front of her tiny pink nose. Not a strand of fur was out of place. 

“How…?” 

“…Did it do that? We can barely do that.”

She could fit in their cupped hands. The exponential size increase as she grew better not increase the capacity for destruction or Koschei might have to bring her to Ushas himself.

“Kos, I thought of a name.”

“Yes?”

“It’s Terran, but I think it fits.”

“What is it?”

“Ragnarok, the end of the world.” 

They looked at their belongings for a moment. A scrap of a sock fluttered along the floor.

“Yes Thete, it fits.”

*

The possession of a cat was relatively uneventful from then on. It seemed to understand the training methods they’d (finally) researched and had stopped destroying everything it fancied. They continued to call it Ragnarok as they still only had (almost) one set of un-clawed clothes to their names. To request more so soon would invite questions they couldn’t answer and a possible room inspection they couldn’t afford. 

They began to notice Ushas in the hallways, a flick of a white braid or a flash of eyes, always glaring, and really they hadn’t done anything to her personally. It was her own fault for not planning ahead properly for the experiment as far as Koschei was concerned. 

She sat alone in classes, of which they had only three together. She walked alone in the hallways of the Prydonian floor. She ate alone in the Prydonian refectory in the mornings, and not the evenings. No one spoke to her or she to anyone, not even her Arpexian Cousins. It was possible she had companions in other Chapters, but it seemed unlikely. The only staircase they frequently saw her on was the one outside their room and they’d found that it led to a floor devoted to personal laboratories. She seemed to have been granted a small student lab despite being in her first year in the University. 

Theta was beginning to look concerned every time she walked by and Koschei knew an attempt at offering companionship was becoming inevitable. Even for individuals as understanding and experienced in shunning and being shunned as they were, this seemed quite excessive. She really wasn’t that frightening. There had to be something else to explain the behavior. 

It seemed the right time to gain access to the University Data Matrix. 

*

It had always been a thrill that they cherished. Sneaking around like this at night, inevitably being somewhere or doing something they weren’t supposed to since the list of those things was so very long. Most instructors assumed that since many Potentials still slept most nights, others would respectfully engage in quiet, productive behaviors during the very late hours just like adults did. This was quiet (by necessity) and productive (to them) but not in any way respectful. 

They approached the least-utilized instructor Matrix access room. This had been determined by several days of carefully following instructors around and one instance of feigned sleepwalking. It was locked, but Theta had gotten very good at opening doors now and they were inside with the tiniest sonic whine.

The screens on the walls were in a sleep mode, the only light in the cavernous room was cast from the symbol of Rassilon suspended motionless upon them. 

“Have you got the program?”

“Do you think I’d get all the way down here without it and not notice? Honestly, I’m not you.”

This sort of thing would be much easier when they could talk mind to mind. There’d be no chance of anyone overhearing them then. Koschei tapped the nearest screen awake and quickly signed the screen with the nearby stylus. He’d been able to witness someone’s signature by pretending to be lost and being careful to stare into their eyes until he could be sure they’d believe him without suspicion. The identity of the signature hadn’t mattered, only the system access. 

Theta was playing lookout, watching the device on his wrist for any sign someone had tripped the sensors they’d left on the door and in the hall outside. Koschei now pressed the little hexagonal chip into the slot on the screen’s frame. This would upload and run the program he’d written over the past few days. Neither of them had the patience or time to figure out how to sort the data on every file and student the instructors had access to, so Koschei had written a program that would search for her name, copy all the found data onto the chip, and erase the program in its entirety when it was done. Flawless. 

“How are we?”

“In the clear. No footsteps in or past. How much longer?”

The chip chose that moment to change color. “Done. Let’s go.” 

He logged out of the account and put the computer back into sleep with no memory it had awoken in the night. He and Theta crept back into the hallway, collecting their sensors and leaving no trace. That was far too easy. 

It guaranteed future trips. 

*

Headmaster Borusa was in his office when he was notified that there had been an incident of unreported access to the University’s Data Matrix. He relayed instructions to find the location used and assumed there had simply been a mistake. All instructors were required to provide a log entry of their access times, but someone may have been in a hurry. 

He became intrigued when they were unable to locate the terminal or room that had been used at all, but that there had been two first year students in a faculty hallway that night. It was a situation worth further attention. 

*

Back in their rooms Theta dropped all the equipment onto their workbench and tossed him a Tablet. Koschei caught it, dropped backwards on their bed and inserted the chip, watching as the data began to upload. Theta joined him a moment later, socks on over cold, but stealthy, feet. 

There wasn’t that much data to read through, Koschei’s program had been very efficient. Only a few hours work and the complete student records of Ushaslirexapa of the Prydonian Chapter House of Arpexia rested before them, theirs for the perusing. Koschei handed the Tablet to Theta and let him read out loud. There was no reason not to now, no one would hear them here. 

“Alright let’s see… black eyes - we know that. Brown hair, well not anymore obviously. Healthy little loomling, same year as us only a month earlier, hmm she’s actually older than we are. Two House genetic contributors, Panditalirex and Arogyakarlexapa, a formal pair, both biological specialists. Mother worked at the Hospital in the Citadel for some time… oh.”

Koschei glanced up sharply when Theta’s voice fell.

“They’re dead. Both of them. They died when she was six.”

That was unusual. As Time Lords who remained on Gallifrey there was very little to kill them, even less to actually kill them dead. “How?”

“You read. I’m not reading anymore.” Theta rolled over to lay his belly along Koschei’s side and hide his face under a pillow. Koschei knew better than to try to console him. He picked up the Tablet. Theta had only been four when his Father had ended, peacefully at the end of his last regeneration. It was what had happened afterwards that maintained Theta’s grief. 

“Incident was reported early in the year, we were five. Says,” ‘ _The most recent child, of House Arpexia, Ushaslirexapa, has been found injured, but alive in the wilderness near…_ ’ 

Koschei paused. “It’s some canyon we’ve never been to.” 

‘ _Her Cousins Panditalirex and Arogyakarlexapa had left with her on a planned excursion to study natural flora a week earlier, but were killed the first day of their planned trip._

 _It is not confirmed what killed them. Their wounds are consistent with the attack of a carnivorous animal, but might have been the acts of carrion consuming organisms instead. The child discovered their bodies in the canyon bottom in the morning after they had left to investigate a noise and did not return. Though the child set off the emergency beacon as instructed, no one seems to have received the signal. The child survived for five days alone in a dangerous sector without sufficient food or water supplies._

_The details of what happened during that time remain unknown. The child has not spoken since her rescue and has refused the presence of a mind-healer. It is feared the child may need to be hospitalized due to her irregular emotions…_ ’ 

“Irregular emotions. Her parents were mauled to death but her grief is irregular. They refuse to even acknowledge the existence of a parental bond despite her being the product of a pairbond, as if it’s indecent.” Theta’s voice was muffled and dull under the pillow. 

‘ _…before being returned to the care of her House. Though Panditalirex and Arogyakarlexapa were eccentric members of House Arpexia due to their odd research habits, the loss of such young Time Lords will be mourned as a loss to the whole of the House and Prydonian Chapter. The looming of two new Cousins has been approved in light of these events._ ’

They let the tablet blink off to conserve energy while they lay in silence. Koschei knew he was seething inside his mind, dark thoughts against this planet that had given them life and all its many limitations. He wanted out, and some seedling part of him was beginning to not care how. And for the first time he was so, so glad they weren’t telepaths yet. He didn’t want to share these thoughts. He was perhaps more grateful than he’d ever been before that his Father allowed him to refer to him as such, had always treated him as his child instead of just a much younger Cousin of whom he was providing care. He’d never known which other Cousins had contributed to his makeup and had never felt the need. Many tots were not allowed such relations at all. He wondered if they even knew what they missed.

Theta had shoved the pillow aside in favor of fresher air and the expression he was wearing had to be the absolute inverse of the fierce one Koschei had found so appealing down in the tunnels. His dark eyes were soft and sad, with a helpless cast to them that made something whisper that he should take them both far away from everything and never let Theta out of his sight. But that was a ridiculous thought. 

“That was horrible. We shouldn’t have done this.”

“It’s far too late now. Besides, it does confirm a suspicion of mine.” Koschei swallowed against the little flicker of horror as his thoughts came together with the feeling of absolute truth. 

“What’s that?”

“They took her to mind healers, to a hospital. Her aura when we’ve been near her, it’s… damaged. It’s too flat. She’s our age group, it’s not that she’s that much better at shielding than we are, there’s less feeling to be accessed.”

Theta sat up to stare at him. “You think they did it on purpose, refused to accept genuine grief as a natural reaction for a Time Lord instead of a Gallifreyan. You think they attempted to fix it themselves.”

“I would almost call it confirmed.”

“Omega, do you think she even knows? Or did they even leave her the capacity to care?”

“There’s no way to be sure. We can’t just ask her.”

“Do we tell her? What if she really doesn’t know what they did?” He could feel Theta’s anger thrumming, but it was secondary to his concern.

“She doesn’t know us. And she’s functioning just fine, even after viewing the Schism with that kind of damage. She had feelings, I’ve felt them, everything is just… washed out.”

Theta lay back down and shoved his head under the pillow again. “They say a bad shock can turn someone’s hair white.” 

Ragnarok joined them since they had remained in one location for so long and began to purr. She was getting larger, though not quite grown into her legs. Koschei decided pets were nice things to have. 

“So what do we do?”

**Author's Note:**

> There should be two more Saturday posts, another short part and a Meta post about the Gallifrey in the series, but then this will probably go on hiatus until the next season comes out. Thanks for reading.


End file.
